Chilli prices spiral for incessant rains

Green chilli prices soared fourfold to Tk 200 a kilogram in a week at the retail level in Dinajpur and its surrounding districts.

Take, for instance, the case of Md Afzal Hossain, who bought 250 grams of green chilli at Tk 50 from Dinajpur Railbazar yesterday. Most of the chilli were very tender and of bad quality.

A week earlier, he purchased the same amount of chilli at Tk 10, and they were fresh and lush green in colour.

One of the most important cooking ingredients for Bangladeshi cuisine, green chilli sold at around Tk 170 a kg in the wholesale market.

The wholesale traders blamed the price spiral on a production slump as a result of incessant rain and floods in the chilli-producing areas. Chilli plants cannot survive under flood water and heavy rains, according to farmers. However, traders said they had to raise the chilli price as they were buying the product at a higher rate due to supply shortages.

“The crisis deepened during Eid-ul-Azha because of the incessant rains and floods in chilli producing districts,” said Rafiqul Islam, a wholesale chilli trader of Bahadurbazar area in Dinajpur. 

Besides, the chilli from local orchards in Dinajpur is already finished, he added.

As a result, traders were bringing in chilli from Lalmonirhat, Bogra and Meherpur regularly to meet the local demand.

Around 200 hectares of land has been brought under chilli farming this year, according to the Department of Agricultural Extension in Dinajpur.

“There was no shortage of chilli last year. But this year its price has gone up as we did not have a good yield,” said Golzar Ali, a farmer at Biral upazila in Dinajpur.

Harun Ur Rashid, president of the Importers Group of Hili Land Port, said they are bringing in green chilli from India and selling those at Tk 50 a kg.

Over at Benapole, green chilli sold at Tk 250 a kg in the retail markets yesterday. A week ago, they sold at Tk 80 a kg in the wholesale markets, our Benapole correspondent added.

“The wholesale traders have raised the prices of green chilli as the supply was inadequate. So we had to sell the item at higher prices,” said Korban Mia, a retailer at Benapole kitchen market.

The prices of other vegetables also increased drastically at the wholesale and retail levels in Dinajpur, consumers said.